On October 20, 2022, the FTC announced that it is exploring a rule to crack down on junk fees and the unfair or deceptive tactics companies use to impose them. Junk fees are unnecessary, unavoidable, or surprise charges that inflate costs while adding little to no value. According to the FTC, companies often harvest junk fees by imposing them on captive consumers or by deploying digital dark patterns and other tricks to hide or mask them.
The FTC’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking stemmed from its concern that junk fees are common in many sectors of the U.S. economy. The types of junk fees the FTC is seeking comment on include:
Unnecessary charges for worthless, free, or fake products or services;
Unavoidable charges imposed on captive consumers; and
Surprise charges that secretly push up the purchase price.
Read the FTC’s full press release here.